Elegante Mother is going to be NINETY years old on December 7th. We’re planning an open house a week from today to celebrate. Plans have been in the works since September.
One of my nieces created her invitations and addressed about two-thirds of them. She is also preparing music for her iPod to play as background music during the open house. AND, this same young woman is going to oversee the beverage table for us. Her husband is going to be our official photographer, so that we can get pictures of family and friends.
My two older sisters are working on picture boards. There are pictures of family members from my great grandmother down the family tree to my granddaughter. There are also shots of EM on a camel in Morocco and other memorable vacations. I’m looking forward to seeing them when they are all complete.
My youngest sister has been collecting information and pictures about EM and her family to make a binder or scrapbook that has journaling, and mementos. I hope that we can duplicate that book for each of us, because her collection of historical information about the family is just amazing.
I helped EM make the choices at the caterers, and I’m keeping the list of who plans to attend. I’ve organized carpet and window cleaning for this week, and I have some cleaning of my own to do. We will not have all the Christmas decorations out, but some of them will be in place. I have to put away all the Fall decorations before the end of the week.
Saturday, I get to take EM to the salon, so we are both going to have our hair done for the day.
My mind is focused on lists of things to be done. The lists, and the chores are not what’s important, the celebration of my mother’s long life is the key. But, if the lists help me to clear things away so that I can focus on EM and her guests, then they have served their purpose. Each day, we’ll get closer to our goal, and I hope that makes us calmer, happier hosts.
Ninety! Pretty darned spectacular, isn’t it?? *G*

Earlier this week, I wanted to make time to wish all my friends a lovely Thanksgiving, or at least a Happy Thursday. I think I got part of that message through, because I can see my friends chatting about menus for the meal. *G*
For the first time in years, I didn’t have to cook the turkey! I wonder if they were worried that I might forget to turn on the oven again??
We spent the morning cooking. I made Mother’s famous brownie recipe, and Vernice Kastman refrigerator rolls. Dear Husband did his world renown lasagna, and I steamed cauliflower and made buttered bread crumbs with green onions for the topping. I washed three heads of Romaine, and we gathered the rest of the ingredients for Caesar Salad. We don’t normally eat this way, for those of you who are worrying. This was what we contributed to a MUCH larger meal.
There were about 24 people from three branches of my family. My niece did a spectacular job decorating her house and providing seating for everyone. She cooked the turkey, her mother brought a ham. There were appetizers, lots of veggies, and of course, pumpkin pie for dessert.
It interested me to read the comments to the previous post on Thanksgiving dinner. It seems that every family has it’s own expectations as to what should be served. When I married DH, I quickly learned that lasagna was the meal for special occasions. His children don’t care for my lasagna recipe, so DH is always invited to cook. Now, MY family has come to expect lasagna on the sideboard!
I was good. I took very small servings of those things I wanted to try. Since there was such variety, my plate was full, but when we walked away from the table, I wasn’t too full, or uncomfortable. We left the lasagna and brownies for my niece. One of my sisters took the refrigerator rolls and the cauliflower home with her, so we didn’t have to eat leftovers for a week.
Tonight, we’re having a beef and potato soup that I’ve whipped up from the broth left over from cooking a sirloin tip roast in the crock pot. A simple soup and salad sounds just right following Thanksgiving, don’t you think?